Tag: celebration

Earlier this month we held an event to celebrate both the closing of Civic Space–our storefront workspace project generously funded by The Ontario Trillium Foundation–and the people who make Windsor such a unique place to live. This project called upon the residents of Windsor to nominate someone they knew for a “Best of” award in any category they could think of.

We dressed up Civic Space with balloons, paper lanterns, a red carpet, and as much gold as we could find and hosted an awards ceremony to hand out 57 trophies we made for the nominees. We had these trophies engraved with the title each person bestowed on their nominee and lined the walls with them.

During the ceremony the trophies were handed out and those who made a nomination (and those who were nominated) had a chance to say a few words to the crowd. It was a memorable night for me and I hope everyone who came could say the same. Thanks to all who participated. Stay in touch!

First and foremost, we want to give ahuge thanks to everyone who made a nomination for the Best of Awards and helped uncover the things that make Windsor such a unique place to live. Also, thank you so much for your patience. We had an unexpected delay sourcing some of the materials for the celebration, but things are back on track and we’re holding The Best of Awards on Thursday, May 8th from 6pm – 10pm!

We hope that this change isn’t prohibitive and you can make it; it’s going to be a blast. All you have to do is bring the person you nominated along with you. Refreshments will be served and everyone who was nominated will receive a personalized award during the ceremony. If you weren’t able to make a nomination, come along for the celebration anyways!

We know that a city is more than just buildings, roads, political decisions, pools, telephone poles, and parks. We know that it’s all of the little things that make this city great, or better yet, it’s all the little things that so many people we know do for us, knowingly or not, every day that make this city great. We think it’s long overdue that we help celebrate those people and we hope you’ll help us.

We want to have a big awards ceremony…really big actually. So, we’ll make the awards and host the party, all you have to do is find someone to nominate and show up to help us celebrate.

Here’s how it will work: You make a nomination below, we’ll mail you two invitations (one for you and one for the person you nominate), and then you both show up for our awards party on Thursday, May 8th, 2014 at 6:00PM.

**Don’t forget: The nominator is responsible for bringing the nominee to collect their award.

Submissions are now closed. Thank you to everyone who made a nomination for The Best of Awards! We’ll be in touch soon and see you on Thursday, May 8th at 6pm (CIVIC Space – 411 Pelissier Street, Windsor)

I was watching Season 4 of Art21 today and was reminded of this work by Pierre Huyghe, who creates films, installations, interventions, and public events.

Streamside Day was a work in which Huyghe scripted a celebration for a small town named Streamside, which included costumes, deserts, songs, speeches, parades, and decorations. You can read more about the project in the interview, and there’s also a video there of the project.

So, I have to wonder, when will we begin our plans for a Windsor-based parade? A “Windsor Day”, a celebration of everything that makes this city what it is (which will by definition have to include the numerous things wrong with the city), a parade with small floats, inflatable sculptures, and marching bands. We’ve talked about it before, maybe we should plan one for next summer.

Broken City Lab is an artist-led interdisciplinary creative research collective and non-profit organization working to explore and unfold curiosities around locality, infrastructures, and creative practice leading towards civic change.